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'Humvees in a China Shop' No Help in Afghanistan

'Humvees in a China Shop' No Help in Afghanistan

by

Anna Husarska

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The new commander of
coalition forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal,
announced: "The Afghan people are at the center of our mission. In
reality, they are the mission." The four-star general was wearing
military fatigues, but his wording sounded civilian. Indeed, when
President Obama explained in March how the United States plans "to
disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and
Afghanistan," he ordered a "civilian surge" in Afghanistan. But
make no mistake: The civilian part of the coalition operations here
is subservient to the military arm.

The problem with this approach is that when
military structures perform or oversee civilian tasks, the
nonmilitary humanitarian work often gets politicized and
militarized, and the difference between the two is blurred. If
executed as planned, the "civilian surge" may worsen the situation
here.

Integrating more civilians into military
structures means further militarizing what has traditionally been
humanitarian work. This is not in the interest of the Afghan
people, who expect security from coalition forces and assistance
from civilian aid agencies.

The main destination of this "surge" will be
the U.S.-led provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs), whose
performance in Afghanistan has been criticized by humanitarian
groups on the ground: One aid worker from a European
nongovernmental organization said they behave like "Humvees in a
china shop."

While working in the eastern city of
Jalalabad last year, I heard many tales that amounted to such
porcelain-breaking. The main victims were the communities the PRTs
were seeking to help. An Afghan working for an Asian NGO recounted
how 15 Humvees entered their compound unannounced and the uniformed
"farenjee" (Afghan for "foreigners") began conducting quick medical
examinations -- 45 seconds per patient -- while photographing the
process to document their outreach. (After complaints from the NGO,
the Americans said they spent 105 seconds per patient, not 45.)
There was the time that armed, uniformed Americans arrived at an
orphanage, I was told, to distribute pencils and notebooks. In the
process, the Americans terrified the female employees of the
orphanage and the young children. An Afghan doctor from an American
NGO told me his concerns about the welfare of communities where the
PRTs distribute medicines from their Humvees: The labels are in
English or Urdu, he noted, not Pashto, the language spoken in the
region.

I visited Jalalabad again in May. The aid
agency I work for, the International Rescue Committee, continues to
implement programs there, but even now the ever-deteriorating
security environment means we mostly have to rely on our trusted
staff of Afghans. I did get to visit the American PRT in Jalalabad,
where I was received by a senior civil affairs officer. He told me
and an Afghan colleague of mine that Americans were no longer going
out to villages uninvited. I suggested that the danger still
existed for locals contacted by the PRTs -- these Afghans could be
branded collaborators. But the officer saw no problem. "Our
presence forces them to make a choice: Either they support the
government or they support the Taliban," he said. And he added, "It
takes a little bit of courage if you want to be free; freedom does
not come free."

My Afghan colleague later told me of recent
incidents in which a mullah was killed in Chaparhar, apparently for
working with government and coalition forces, and another mullah
was decapitated in Khogyani for allowing his two sons to serve in
the Afghan National Army, which was trained by the U.S.-led
coalition.

Contact with the foreign troops, it seems,
does not come free, either.

The PRT in Jalalabad has not had significant
run-ins with nongovernmental organizations over the past year, but
problems persist. Staff changes are frequent, and the handovers are
poor, so Afghans watch the civilians who are arriving continually
try to reinvent the wheel. I am confident that the civil affairs
officer I spoke with and his colleagues from the National Guard
have the best of intentions, but theirs is a mission impossible.
The PRTs' directive to "win the hearts and minds" -- known as WHAM
-- and to implement "quick-impact projects" is better suited for
charity handouts than a strategy for reconstruction and
development.

Simply put, PRTs are a military tool
attempting to perform civilian tasks. Inherently, they undermine
the necessary distinction between the development objectives of
humanitarian aid workers and the political-military objectives of
coalition forces.

Relief and development work is more
effectively done by experienced and independent aid agencies,
working in partnership with the communities they serve. Staff
members at the main NGOs in Afghanistan are mostly national (99
percent of IRC staff is Afghan) and know the local languages and
culture. As such, they do not require expensive protection. They
are also experienced in aid delivery. Most NGOs have been working
with Afghans for many years and are committed to long-term
stabilization and recovery.

Civilians in Afghanistan are caught between
the Taliban and coalition forces. Humanitarian groups cannot be
"force multipliers" or "post-battle cleanup" teams; they are the
only ones with enough impartiality to provide assistance to the
Afghan people. And for the aid community there is no question: The
Afghan people are definitely "our mission."

Further

In the vile wake of Charlottesville - those sweaty young white men, pasty faces contorted, screaming, "Blood and Soil!" "Jews Will Not Replace Us!" "Fuck You Faggots!" - what to say? Just this: This is racism, domestic terrorism, pure hate. This is not who we are, and this is not ok. Most vital, those "whose pigmentation matches theirs" must speak "with unflinching clarity (or) we simply amen it... They need white faces speaking directly into their white faces, loudly on behalf of love."

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